Collected landscape juniper

Carl_Bergstrom

Well, just for the sake of discussion, I'll add a dissenting opinion.

On the positive side, this is clearly a splendid piece of material with great potential. It's beautifully presented with some of the nicest photography I've seen on this board. (No surprise there; I've read a bonsai photo tip or two from the artist over the years!)

But for me, the image doesn't work...yet.

I think it comes down to two main problems. First, I just don't see the canopy and the trunk line as part of an integral whole. They don't communicate with one another, they don't exhibit a thematic or textural unity, and the don't collaborate to establish an artist form. Obviously the trunk line is not
going to be as pliable as the canopy, so I'd like to see some sort of restyling up top so that the story and message and texture and dynamicism of the trunk continues on upward into the foliage, and so that these two elements togeher compose a unified whole.

Second, I don't care for the choice of planting depth and/or angle. To me, exposing the underside of the deadwood along the base makes what could be a superbly grounded tree into something almost club-footed. And a base that could be stable like Gibralter looks instead like a molar hanging on by one root against a dentist's pliers.

I'd be interested to hear your comments, and especially any thoughts that Mike might have about why he has chosen to display the tree as he has. Perhaps I just missed the boat.

With my best regards,
Carl

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mike_p

Carl, I've been pondering how to respond. I must say that we all see things differently, and it's a good thing or it would get very boring in the world of bonsai.
Basically, I see this as a yamadori clinging to a ledge on a cliff. Battered and broken by the forces of nature, but still rising up triumphantly.
Back to all of us seeing things differently, I'm reminded of one of my mother's sayings, and she had a ton of them. This one goes; " 'To each his own' said the lady as she kissed the cow." And, what was a cow to the lady may be a lot of bull to the rest of us.
Anyway, thanks for your opinion. We need dissent, as it causes us to think about what we're doing, and maybe find another way to view it.

Mike

chris e

Fantastic tree unbeileavable design

Carl_Bergstrom

Mike,

Thank you for your kind reply. I really appreciate that you were able to take my comments in the spirit they were intended. That is, with good intentions, hoping to generate discussion and improve my own understanding and maybe, with some luck, to push the art form a bit. Thank you for not taking my words the wrong way. It's a sweet tree no matter how you look at it and I'd be delighted to have more material of this caliber in my back yard.

With my best regards,
Carl

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bonsaial1

I think that one more stab at this juniper is in order. While I take both of Carl's points as valid, I am not so disturbed about the base of the trunk as the terrible disorder of the canopy.

This juniper from what I can tell had many thin branches with foliage too far away from the trunk. The artist (Mike Page) has tried to cleverly feature this not so good feature as a positive, by taking the whips and contoring them,ala Marco Invernissi, into some kind of cohesive mass.

The problem with the canopy is that at this point in the life of the tree, it is sort of a lifeless ball of tangled branches and blobs of green, with no real distinctive outline. More of an octopuse.

I think with the right wiring and bending a more layered , feminine, styilized crown could be achieved with this tree.

I will do a virtual later, Thanks Mike, Al

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